 "Bands from the same regions try to stick together to organise gigs and we support each other as much as we can." Mention the genre Metalcore and usually people will bring up bands from the USA, the UK and to an extent Australia... mostly because they tend to dominate the touring circuit. However if you look under the coveted swathe of stadium bands i.e. of the Asking Alexandria, Killswitch Engage and Parkway Drive, then you'll find a plethora of Metalcore bands from most of the known metal scenes. Emerging out of the Polish metal scene is Winds Brought Siberia who arguably have been causing a bit of a national stir, there is no doubt when things calm down (post COVID-19) we will see this quintet develop plans to play across Europe. They went on to explain that they are not just a run-of-the-mill Metalcore band and certainly are not just another product off of the factory line. They told GMA about their origins, how their sound dabbles in global sounds, why it's hard for bands in Poland to gain a relative national following and that success tends to rely on being internationally known and of course, what there is to do in their home city of Poznań.  For those who have not heard of Winds Brought Siberia, could you please give us a brief history of the band? "Winds Brought Siberia is a Polish project that began in 2016. Since the very beginning we wanted to bring something that's full of emotions and allows us to share our feelings and thoughts with as many people as possible. In December 2019 we released our first EP “Consolation”, which features 5 songs that describe and respond to some of the problems and various situations we face nowadays all over the world. It is our voice, a word that we want to spread through people and raise awareness and touch their hearts and souls." You play Post-Hardcore / Metalcore; describe your sound without using the genres, how do you make yourself different from other bands in these genres? "We are a mix of people with various interests, and we take inspirations from every part of life. From the very beginning we wanted to not shut ourselves in the box of a single genre and deliver our music from our hearts. We also listen to music from all over the world, and every one of us have different favourite styles and genres, so you can hear sounds from all over the world in our songs. Sometimes we are more “post” and sometimes we are more “black”." What is the Metalcore / Post-Hardcore scene like in Poland? Are there many bands? "The Metalcore / Post-Hardcore scene in our country is fairly big. We have some recognizable bands e.g. Frontside (whose vocalist is a guest on one of our songs), who are one of the pioneers of these genres here, but it’s hard to achieve a local-iconic level like they did. There are also a lot of smaller bands and every month people form new ones, so the scene is developing right now." What has the band been doing at home during the pandemic? What other hobbies / interests do you all have? "Most of us have the privilege to work and learn from home, but in our free time we spoke, planned and worked on the future of the band, social media and new material that we want to release next. As of the hobbies we are mostly ordinary dudes, so our activities involve video-games, books, listening to music, learning new stuff like vlogging and photography, some sports and of course practising instruments."  Poznań, Poland / Source: Poland Today What are the challenges that most Polish Metal bands face these days (ignoring COVID-19)? Is there established media in Poland? "Not really. We have Facebook fan pages and groups, auditions at small local radios but nothing widespread - this may be one of the challenges we have to face. There is no specific channel for spreading metal music. We also have a feeling that attendance at concerts is also dropping. As there’s a lot of new bands that are in our country it’s getting harder to get recognized and being original, but we think that our strongest side is spreading emotions through our music." Tell us more about the Polish Metal scene, when did metal arrive in Poland? What is the public opinion of metal? "It’s hard to tell how old Polish metal is - from the information we could gather it began in the late 70's with the bands KAT and TSA; who don’t have much in common with modern metal. We suppose that metal as a genre is not very popular in Poland. Although we have some big metal stars like Vader, Behemoth, Decapitated or recently Mgła and Batushka - they are more popular abroad - the percentage of active metalheads in Poland is still very low. Young Polish bands are also very promising but we lack support from the local environment, unfortunately local shows do not overflow with audience. Still, we cannot say that we don’t have support. Bands from the same regions try to stick together to organise gigs and we support each other as much as we can. For most of us it's a very expensive hobby we enjoy doing and people closest to us are always there." For metalheads visiting Poznań, what sights / attractions and bars / venues could you recommend? "There’s a lot of great places to see in Poznań. As a band we probably played in all of the venues that are in this town and all we can say is that they’re great. U Bazyla and Pod Minogą are probably the most known and were visited by a whole lot of foreign musicians. When it comes to places not strictly linked to metal music, Poznań is a town full of great pubs, bars and clubs, all of them have their own unique climate and atmosphere. Basically it’s a place that makes almost everybody feel good and acclimatized. It’s clearly visible that we as a band are very connected to our city as we use our “slogan” - Greater Poland Metalcore (Greater Poland is a Polish voivodeship and Poznań is its capital)." Do you have any thanks or greetings you wish to send to friends, family or fans? "For sure! We are grateful to people that helped us shape our music tastes and skills (as individuals and as a band). We would like to thank our friends as they are always at concerts in the first row. Also fans and people who discovered us and appreciate what we do. There are too many to count: but we thank you all! :)." https://www.facebook.com/WindsBroughtSiberia/
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 Poland has always been revered as a massive player in the metal music world, most notably for it's wealth of history and presence in the Extreme Metal arena. Heavyweights like Vader, Behemoth and Vesania may spill off the tongue like as if it was common public knowledge, but it's the underbelly or underground that is currently driving the scene forward and it's bands like Hostia who act as part of the cogs turning the mechanisms. This machine does not need oiling, but by examining the fluidity of the overall machine it's clear that the Polish Metal scene has a long, bright future ahead of it. Guitarist St. Anacletus (historically speaking refers to Cletus who was the third Bishop of Rome (c.79-c.92; his death) gave GMA the low down about Hostia, their history, debut album, music style, and general attitude towards metal music in Poland.  "We are not Portugal that gave Moonspell the award for promoting Portugal in the world. Behemoth would never get that kind of thank you from our minister of culture" For those who have not heard of Hostia, could you please give us a history of the band? "We just started to write our history! Story of 4 reincarnations of dead popes playing grindcore metal! Kidding! There is not much to say. We are long time friends, each of us played for years in different bands, but we wanted to play this kind of music in this certain line up. I told the rest about the idea and 30 seconds later we had the band!" What do your families think of your music, and when did you get your first taste in metal music? "Haha! Good question! My lady can stand it for a moment, that’s why we have such short songs haha! For my mum metal music is OK until the growling vocals come in. So Hostia is probably too much! I started with Metallica when they played at Wembley after Freddie’s death and then very quickly got into more extreme stuff like Death, Morbid Angel, Vader, Napalm Death and Sepultura. Slayer came quite late for me I must say. What enticed you to play Grindcore? How would you define your sound? "I just f*cking love it! I am into very different music styles but when it comes to playing I feel the best in the most intense, energetic and brutal short songs! Stripped to the bone, pure energy! Like a punch between the eyes! So I hope Hostia sounds like that! We consider Hostia as a grindcore metal band but with some other elements taken from hardcore, death metal or even rock and roll. We don’t want to play the same song ten times on the album. We want it to vary, but at the same time as brutal as we can make it!" How does it feel to release your debut self-titled album "Hostia", will there be a album launch party? "Feels f*cking awesome! It’s like the birth of a child… except the fact that none of us have a child. We are proud of it and really overwhelmed by the great response we have received till now. It feels really f*cking good! It’s not a debut album for any of us as musicians, but it feels like the new beginning for us! There was no release party because of two reasons. We want to keep our faces unknown for some time and second – as you noticed it is our debut album, and we are still a quite unknown band so it would be a big exaggeration to organize a release party."  (Warsaw University of Technology) - Politechnika Warszawska Will you be looking to do an international tour in support of the album? "That’s a hard one. To be honest we didn’t plan Hostia to be a very active live band when we started it. But all of us love to play live. Playing live is the reason to have a band so we will see what time brings! We are ready and open for all kind of offers. I think it all depends on if people will like our music as much to have the need to see us live. For now I can say we have some people from all over the world and places so far away from Poland like Honduras or Venezuela writing to us and buying the album so you never know what future brings! We would love to play some shows for sure!" What is the general attitude towards metal music in Poland like? Is it well supported? "Hard to say because we used to have quite big metal labels like Metal Mind or Mystic, but firstly it's getting smaller with number of releases and second left metal and focused on other styles of music. And then are more underground labels like ours Via Nocturna. So metal is supported mostly by small local radio stations, or late night broadcasts in bigger stations, and by internet magazines. Government would rather make us disappear than support but what can you expect from hypocritical ultra catholic neo-nationalists right? We are not Portugal that gave Moonspell the award for promoting Portugal in the world. Behemoth would never get that kind of thank you from our minister of culture. But fuck it – we don’t need that until there are many metalheads! Metal supposed to be in opposition!" What is the metal scene like in Warsaw? What venues, bars, etc are there? What sights / attractions could you recommend to metalheads to go and see? "Forget about Hardrock Caffe Warsaw – that’s first! There are many clubs but smaller ones changing every couple of years and I must say – cause I am really out of time I have blank head now! Most metal big club here would be Progresja Club. Then we can mention Potok Club, Proxima, Stodoła, Palladium. There was Club Rock but not sure if it exist any more. For beer you can check Rock & Roll pub next to Metro Politechnika station. About Warsaw – I don’t want to make everyone asleep by me taking next 3 hours about what you shall see in Warsaw! Depends on what you like but we have a lot of interesting places and stuff to see. Let me know if you around!" What plans do you have for the year ahead? "Some new videos are coming and hopefully some shows! As well as some kick ass new merch so feel free to visit us on www.facebook.com/hostiaband as well as Bandcamp and Youtube! Thank you for the interview and all readers for spending their time on checking a bit about Hostia! Spread the blasphemy!" https://www.facebook.com/hostiaband/ 
Following our review of Hybris' debut EP "Blinded Thoughts" released this year, we decided to take some more time out and speak to their drummer Igor "Joey" Zaton about the band's origins, what the Polish Metal scene is like and what future plans they have. By Rhys Stevenson How did you guys form and what makes your band different? The relatively short story of Hybris started in the beginning of 2012, when the friendship between Ozzy and Johan grew into the birth of their Technical Thrash project, firstly just for pure fun. Time passed and they decided to take it more seriously, therefore after a few member changes, they managed to assemble a full line-up, in the summer of the same year, with Pisston on bass, and me Joey, on drums. A couple of rehearsals, some style changes and every one of us knew that it was a perfect band for him to be satisfied as a musician. From the very beginning, we worked on material and were focused on possessing our unique style, without losing an old-school spirit. We are setting the bar high and we know that. Our task is not easy, but I think we are determined enough to make it happen. What would you say your metal style is and who or what inspired you to play that style? We define our style as Progressive Death / Thrash. We draw the inspiration mostly from the music every one of us adores, classical German Thrash and Floridian Death Metal, but adding to it some Progressive, Oriental atmosphere that allows us to experiment with a traditional Metal sound. What is the underground Polish metal scene like right now? What bands should music lovers pay particular attention to? Well, to me talking about Polish Metal has always been all about the underground. Surely every local metalhead is proud of our international representants - Behemoth and Vader, but in comparison to Western Europe, the amount of Polish bands recognized all over the globe is rather disappointing. Fortunately, I can’t say that when it comes to the underground which was and will stay strong and totally worth attention. Starting with the past: The number of Polish bands that with no fear could catch up with the Western scenes, but in the past they finished their careers after a demo, or two, because of Communism, poorness and the Iron Curtain is purely horrifying. Check out IMPERATOR - mighty Death Metal from our hometown. Although, they’ve even managed to release an LP, besides in Poland rarely can you hear anything about them. Talking about the current situation, we can easily observe a rapid growth of a young, underground scene - especially the Thrash one. There’s a great deal of new Polish Metal bands who are worth the attention, so obviously I cannot point out all of them here, but if I had to choose the one that appeals to me mostly it would definitely be ThermiT - kickass Heavy / Thrash from Poznań! What is the meaning behind your band name and does this play a part in your lyric topics? The term HYBRIS comes from the literature of Ancient Greece and it is used to describe the inflated self-esteem of a man that usually leads to some punishment or his personal tragedy. Although, it isn’t the exact topic of our music, it is somehow associated with our lyrics, which are mainly about human mind, it’s mysteries and wild nature. Do you feel that Central and Eastern European metal bands are not getting enough attention from Western media? Yes, I think there is some truth behind those words. As I’ve mentioned before I guess it is primarily due to the disability of Eastern European artists promoting themselves in previous decades. Therefore, talking about good Metal music, people usually think of Scandinavia, Germany, USA, maybe UK, or South America. Whereas countries such as Poland rarely come to their mind. What plans does Hybris have for the future? Currently we are working on the new material and are spending time on organizing a promotional tour across our country in the autumn. When the tour is over we are planning to release some single(s) and then probably prepare an LP. Please tell us some things about Łódź, both in music-terms and holidaymaker terms? (such as what venues there are, attractions, what sites should people see, any famous buildings, that sort of thing) Without a doubt Łódź should be connoted with two legendary names: IMPERATOR, which I’ve pointed out before and PANDEMONIUM - the true might of the underground, that I am honored to be part of a the moment! Analogically to the Metal scene, there are two places of biggest touristic importance that obviously can’t be omitted, while visiting our city - “Piotrkowska” - the longest trade street in the Europe and “Manufaktura” - old textile factory adapted to a huge shopping mall. Truly breathtaking! Finally are there any greetings you wish to send out to friends, fans, etc? Cheers to all people who keep on believing and supporting us. You give us purely powerful motivation. Thank you. SPREAD THE THOUGHTS! https://www.facebook.com/hybrispoland |
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